Curability of breast cancer.

Three concepts of cure are defined--statistical, clinical and personal. The evidence for the curability of female breast cancer according to each of these concepts is examined. It is concluded that the presence of statistically or clinically cured groups of patients is not convincingly demonstrated in past series of treated patients, but that a quarter of such patients have experienced personal cure in that they died from some other cause without overt signs of breast cancer present. The level of personal cure in currently treated series of patients should be higher, mainly due to their more favourable stage distribution.